What is the title of your latest release?
FEAST, and it is my debut novel.
What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
On the backstreets of late 19th century London, spirited Minha is born with a remarkable gift – an extraordinary sense of taste. But this gift and her mixed-race heritage provoke mistrust and rejection, even within her own family. She escapes to France, but rather than finding the sanctuary she craves, she is forced to confront new dangers in the form of a beguiling stranger.
How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
Much of the novel is set in France, and in particular a grand château in the middle of the countryside. I have spent lots of time in France, with family homes there for most of my life, and the fictional Château de Bellefalaise is a composite of real places that I know and love. France, in close proximity to both delicious ingredients and a gourmet chef, was by far the best place for me to set my food-filled story.
Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
I would love to! At certain points I would like to give her a hug. I also admire her, have things to learn from her. Being similarly food obsessed it would be SO much fun to go out for dinner together, or wander around a proper food market.
What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Resourceful, deep-feeling, hopeful.
What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I learned to trust my instincts. This is a book written from the heart. It is not that I have ever written insincerely, that just isn’t me. But it has taken some time to understand how to write bravely, how to access my own voice. Allowing the ideas and words to flow without undue concern for other’s opinions is a great discovery. That is where the best writing lies, for me.
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I open a blank document on day one, put my fingers to the keyboard, and I don’t reread or look back from start to finish of the whole novel. My aim and intention is to allow myself to write without judgement, to remain unself-conscious. There is time and enough for comment and consideration, for editing. The first draft is a magical time, I immerse in it fully.
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
I am a chocolate expert - by which I mean I am literally a chocolate expert. I judge it internationally, and am a professional taster. So I have to say chocolate, I am never without it!
Describe your writing space/office!
My studio is at the top of my house. At one side of it is my easel, where I paint - that is the other side of my career. At the other side is my writing desk. It is an old wooden desk of my grandfather’s, and it is filled with secret compartments. There is always a cup of tea - Earl Grey - close to hand. And I often have postcards or images around and about that inspire me - for Feast these were a couple of portraits by John Singer Sargent, and lush foodie still lives by de Heem, like the beauty that is now on the front cover of my book.
Who is an author you admire?
I love Maggie O’Farrell, for the way she makes me feel about a character, and her depictions of time and place. Her work is rich with atmosphere and detail. I have to mention Deborah Levy too, she is so compelling. I love and relate to her use of the uncanny, the not-quite-real.
Is there a book that changed your life?
Not one book, but an approach, perhaps. As someone who went to art school, and has been a painter since then, it took me longer to find words, and to feel my kind of words were valid. Instrumental in this, ironically, is a supreme wordsmith, the poet Salena Godden, and her novel MRS. DEATH MISSES DEATH. There is a vivid nature to it, it writes its own rules, and that helped give me permission to do things my own way. I would say the same also of THE NIGHT ALPHABET from poet Joelle Taylor, an exceptional and profound piece of writing.
Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
I was fortunate to get two calls! Both from my agent, who it is always gorgeous to hear from, but these calls were extra special. The first was with the offer from my UK publisher, the second was to tell me we had the offer from Berkley in the US. Both times I whooped loudly into an empty room. Then did a major happy dance. With the US offer I was in the middle of writing when my agent called, and I was completely unable to focus afterwards. I went for a long, energized and joyous walk in Kensington Gardens instead.
What’s your favorite genre to read?
I am most profoundly impacted by some of the works I find on the literary fiction shelves - that is where I find things I really carry with me across the years. But I also need comfort, warmth and escape, so I have a great fondness for a good romcom.
What’s your favorite movie?
Very hard to pick just one! I would happily watch Ratatouille over and over. I love that rat, for obvious reasons!
What is your favorite season?
Spring is special, and where I live it brings with it an abundance of glorious things all around and about me. Magnolia flowering, fruit trees blossoming, the ground carpeted with daffodils and bluebells, lambs gamboling about. It is all very life enhancing.
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
A special meal out at a restaurant always feels very celebratory to me. I am lucky enough to know a few exceptional chefs, and there is no greater treat than going to one of their restaurants and having the chef say “don’t bother with the menu, let me cook for you”. I’d like that please!
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
Sooo many books, but I can give you two recent ones that stand out as exceptional. THE TWO ROBERTS by Damian Barr is a beautifully rendered evocation of the lives, work, and important story of two real life artists who were darlings of the art world in the 1930s. I also loved THE SAFEKEEP by Yael van der Wouden, which is a tender, prickly, sensuously told story of love and legacy. Possibly my favorite podcast is Off Menu with James Acaster and Ed Gamble - each interview a fascinating and often hilarious deep dive into their interviewee’s dream menu, that always reveals so much along the way.
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
I am of mixed heritage, with each of my grandparents coming from a different continent, and my parents are both superb cooks. Which means that my life has been filled with diverse cuisines from childhood, and I am a great food lover altogether! But if I had to pick one, it would probably be Indian. Ah, the comfort and joy of a good biryani!
What do you do when you have free time?
I am passionately wedded to my work, so I am painting, or writing, much of the time. But I also always make time to read, to go to art exhibitions, and I walk in the countryside around where I live. If I had a spare hour beyond that, I would probably bake something - I bake a mean brownie.
What can readers expect from you next?
I can’t say much, at present, but I can tell you that my next is full of art, and love, and I’m very excited about it!
In nineteenth-century France, a young woman with a magical sense of taste saves a duc from poison, and her new role as poison taster thrusts her into the world of the nobility, where secrets and danger lurk around every corner.
Minha is born on the backstreets of late nineteenth-century London, the daughter of an Indian spice merchant and an English prostitute. She has a remarkable gift: an incredible sense of taste. She can taste the earth in which potatoes were grown or the tree on which fruits have ripened. She can smell each ingredient—and identify a single false note. But Minha’s gift and her mixed-race heritage provoke mistrust and rejection, even within her own family. Escaping alone to France, Minha chances upon work in the Château de Bellefalaise, where for the first time her strange abilities are lauded.
As official poison taster for Duc Nicolas, Minha must taste every morsel of food that will pass his lips. Others in the household are hostile to her, but when she discovers a man hiding in the stables, their unexpected meeting turns into the first true connection she’s felt since arriving in France.
But mystery and paranoia continue to swirl around the château, with the Duc’s poisoner unidentified and antagonism toward Minha growing. She knows it’s only a matter of time before fingers begin pointing her way. Will she run again, or is this the time to stand and fight?
A thoroughly addictive novel about food, possession, race, love, and a young woman fighting to build a fulfilling life against all odds, this is a gorgeously written debut by author Catherine Kurtz.
Coming of Age | Women's Fiction Friendship [ Berkley, On Sale: June 9, 2026, Hardcover / e-Book / audiobook, ISBN: 9798217191031 / eISBN: 9798217191048 ]
Catherine Kurtz is a painter represented by the Redfern Gallery and has an MA in creative writing from West Dean College. Her fiction explores the female experience, her mixed-race heritage, and the power of creativity. Kurtz is also a member of the Guild of Food Writers and a Grand Jury member of the International Chocolate Awards. Her food journalism has been published in a variety of outlets, including The Spectator’s Scoff,ckbk, and Celebrated Living.
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